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LONDON -- The spiritual leader of a controversial ultra-orthodox Jewish sect has joined his flock in Ontario but not before giving parting shots to politicians, child protection authorities, police and judges in Quebec.

The same day a Quebec court released search warrants alleging physical assaults on children, forced marriages and gross neglect, Lev Tahor released a video of Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans denouncing Quebec authorities, who he says forced them to leave the community they built.

"They did not want the truth. They did not want to come to a resolution. They wanted to destroy us," he says in the shaky video filmed before he climbed into a van to be driven away.

"In other words, they wanted to genocide us. They wanted to commit a genocide."

The Lev Tahor community has been the focus of a child protection investigation for months.

Much of the community fled Ste. Agathe-des-Monts, Que., for Chatham, Ont., in November after child welfare authorities indicated they would be seeking court orders regarding 13 children in the community.

Helbrans was one of the last to leave the compound, the home of the group for a dozen years, last week. Helbrans, who served time in a U.S. prison for kidnapping involving a boy he was trying to convert, gave a rambling speech with the Torah in his arms.

"We did not break any Canadian or Quebec law," he said. "We have not committed a crime against humanity or against the norm of humanity.

"The kids have been specially cared for with health, they were well fed and, I do know very well, we have endured here extremely hard times from persecution, from hate. And the hate has only been growing until now."

He characterized Lev Tahor's flight to Chatham as the latest example in the Jewish history of being driven out of their homes and forced to move on.

"In the nations where we will reside we will not find peace and quiet for long. We'll always be the target for hate and persecution," he said.

Helbrans saved some of his strongest language for Ontario Court Jusitce Stephen Fuerth in Chatham and for Quebec Liberal Leader Phillipe Coulliard, who made comments in December that religious extremists would not be tolerated in Quebec, and said without naming Lev Tahor, "To those who come here and take advantage of our freedoms and democracy to then attack them and ultimately destroy them, we are saying loud and clear: You are not welcome here, we will fight you, we will go after you."

Helbrans likened the persecution of Lev Tahor to the evils of Nazi Germany.

"What difference does it make to the human being, to the human nation, if he is referred to as a judge, a minister or if he is referred to as Dr. Goebbels or Mr. Goering," he said, citing prominent names of the Nazi regime.